Sharing Experiences in Building Social Housing Across Europe

European capital Vienna will share its experiences with building affordable social housing with Belgrade, Serbia. Vienna is frequently coming on top of the top-ten most desirable cities to live in lists and it will try to transfer the know-how to the Serbian capital.

“Social housing is currently the biggest challenge to cities in Europe”, City of Vienna Eurocomm-PR office director Alexandra Radl said on the sidelines of a conference titled Belgrade and Vienna – Development of Cities through Dialog in November 2018.

Processes of European integration and new technologies are bringing regions closer and inter-city cooperation is gaining importance. For this reason, the City Council of Vienna wants to work closely with its neighboring cities, such as Belgrade.

Vienna worked a lot in the direction of applying the concept of smart cities, which has the sustainability and the social component as it core values. This is seen not only in the field of progressive planning policy, but also in sustainable design.

Cities in Cooperation

Vienna and Belgrade cooperate primarily in the areas of urban planning, social housing, environmental protection and the construction of the metro. The exchange of knowledge is done in the field of gender equality, as well as through cooperation with the Vienna Port. Cooperation also includes cultural manifestations within the framework of the Danube Strategy of the European Union. Since 2012, the Vienna Ball is held in Belgrade.

Social housing is a top priority throughout Austria and is financed through income tax and housing-related contributions of all employed citizens. The annual budget for housing in Vienna is $ 700 million, while $ 530 million comes from the national government. It is spent on renovating older apartments in the city, as well as the construction of new social housing projects.

About one third of the 13,000 new apartments built in Vienna each year are funded by the government and commissioned by housing associations.

With its affordable and attractive places to live, Vienna is quickly becoming an international gold standard when it comes to public housing or in this case – a government-funded housing rented by a municipality or non-profit housing associations.

Gasometre-City in Vienna

"Gasometre-City" is one of the most spectacular housing projects in the world that opened in 2001. It perfectly preserves the genius of the industrial monument that it is. Four large gas reservoirs built in 1899 have not been in use since 1986, when the city switched to natural gas. Buildings comprise 602 apartments most of which subsidized within the social housing program, and 250 units in the dormitory. 47,100 m2 is dedicated to commercial purposes, including one of the largest Viennese halls for events with up to 4,000 seats, and a kindergarten. Underground parking holds place for 811 vehicles and another 1,200 can be parked at special parking lots.

This website was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union. Is contents are the sole responsibility of EnlargEUrope project partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.